The number of tragedies and challenges thatSpider-Manhas faced and overcome is genuinely on the wild side. It doesn’t matter if he’s up against an interdimensional vampire that specifically targets people with spider powers or a deranged billionaire in a green latex suit and pumpkin bombs - Spider-Man triumphs. But the one thing he’s never managed to recover from is his worst storyline, even twenty years later.
Spider-Man has had a couple of storylines that weren’t great, to say the least. There are very few people who would jump at the chance topraise storylines like theClone Saga. But none of Spider-Man’s bad stories hold a candle toSpider-Man:One More Dayby J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada,a story that Spider-Man is still seeing the effects of to this day.
This simple story was born out of the fact that the higher-ups at Marvel simply couldn’t stand the fact that Spider-Man was growing up. He was getting older and even had a wife now, and Marvel seemingly hated it, doing absolutely everything in its power to reverse Peter Parker’s marriage to Mary Jane Watson.
Spider-Man: One More DayTore Peter Parker and Mary Jane Apart - Permanently
Beginning withTheAmazing Spider-Man#544 by J. Michael Straczynski, Joe Quesada, Danny Miki, Richard Isanove, and Chris Eliopoulos
Mary Jane Watson and Peter Parker had one of the greatest romances in comic book history. They were right up there with major loverslike Batman and Catwoman or Superman and Lois Lane. Unfortunately, Marvel seemed to absolutely hate the permanence of their romance. So the publisher concocted the storyline ofOne More Day. This story focused on Aunt May being shot afterSpider-Man revealed his secret identityduringCivil War. Peter was desperate to save her and absolutely refused to let her die, resulting in him asking every hero he could to help save his aunt.
“It Doesn’t Make Sense”: Don’t Expect Spider-Man and MJ to Rekindle Their Romance Anytime Soon
Spider-Man’s relationship with Mary Jane Watson is in a rough place, and unfortunately for fans of their romance, that doesn’t seem to be changing.
Because of some unbelievable plot contrivance, it was simply impossible for anyone in the Marvel Universe to help Aunt May.Doctor Strange’s magic was useless, and Tony Stark’s technology was helpless in the face of a single bullet in a ninety-year-old woman. There was clearly no other option here except for Spider-Man to make a deal with someone who is pretty much the Marvel Universe’s version of Satan. With no other option to save his beloved aunt, Peter agreed to sell his marriage to Mephisto, who happily took it andbroke up Spider-Man and Mary Jane, seemingly forever.
Mephisto’s Influence Still Lingers Over Spider-Man
This Storyline Will Never Be Undone
Mephisto’s influence over Spider-Man is still going strong to this day. It’s honestly kind of shocking thatMarvel has steadfastly refused to undo this storyline, despite the fact that quite literally everyone hates it. Even creators at Marvel, such as Nick Spencer, tried to undoOne More Daybut had to settle for amendingSins Pastinstead. Marvel has gone to absolutely absurd lengths to make sure that Mary Jane and Spider-Man will never be together again, even going so far as to introduce a new love interest for Mary Jane simply to keep the two apart.
The strangest thing about this story is the fact thatOne More Daywouldn’t even be a bad story if it wasn’t made permanent.
One of the most hated aspects of the current stories happening inThe AmazingSpider-Man, and another byproduct ofOne More Day,is the introduction of Paul: acharacter that seemingly no one likeswho seems to only exist to act as a roadblock between Mary Jane and Peter getting back together. After all, Peter can’t possibly be withMary Jane if she is already practically married to Paul. This personal conflict really does seem to be the only reason that Paul exists.
The strangest thing aboutOne More Dayis the fact that it wouldn’t even be a bad story if it hadn’t been made permanent. Marvel clearly needed a way to giveSpider-Man his secret identity back, and they wanted to break up Mary Jane and Peter to slow down Peter’s growth. All of that is technically fine. The problem is that Marvel just allowed the villain to get a permanent win overSpider-Man for no real reason aside from a business-oriented dislike of Peter’s growth. Imagine the amazing possible story of Peter realizing the existence of the curse that Mephisto had put on him, breaking it, and reuniting with his love.
To Find the Spider-Man They Want, Fans Have to Look to Alternate Universes
Outside the Confines ofOne More Day, Spider-Man Thrives
The strangest thing about Marvel insisting on keepingOne More Daycanon and keepingSpider-Man and Mary Jane apartis the fact that no one but Marvel-the-company seems to want this kind of status quo. Every single alternate-universe version of Peter Parker who is married to Mary Jane goes over extremely well with fans. Peter B. Parker from theSpider-Versemovies, the fatherly Peter Parker ofUltimate Spider-Manby Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto, and even the Peter fromSpider-Man: Renew Your Vowsby Dan Slott and Adam Kubert:all of these stories includedepictions of Peter happily married, and fans love them.
It’s the strangest thing that Marvel has ever done: the publisher took a character who seemed to have unstoppable momentum and simply removed all of his progress and trapped him in a static state for no benefit at all. There haven’t been any amazing groundbreaking stories told because Peter and Mary Jane aren’t together.It didn’t push his character further in any way; it didn’t teach him a lesson about responsibility, because he doesn’t even remember having been married to Mary Jane to begin with.
Fans Have Long Wanted to See Spider-Man Grow Up
But Marvel Won’t Let Him
There have been so many moments in comic history where a company has set a character up for a major change and then backpedaled on it. Superman released his identity, and Batman almost married Catwoman, but DC walked both of these story decisions back later to re-establish the characters' standard status quo. The difference here is that neither of these eventsundid decades' worth of character progression, and they were reversed fairly quickly. That’s whyOne More Daystands as one of the worst comic book stories: it did the most damage, and no one can get rid of it.
There Are Some Enemies Spider-Man Must Have, But Marvel Has Forgotten One of Them
Spider-Man has some of the greatest villains in comic book history, which is why it’s so strange that Marvel has moved away from one of them.
Spider-Man used to be on top of the world, standing among the greats of comic book history. But these days, it’s not unusual to see fans lamenting that Marvel’s Earth-616 Spider-Man is a complete joke. He gets no respect from anyone, even his own publisher. While Peter Parker continues to thrive in alternate universes and on the big screen, he’s only been doing worse and worse on Earth-616. Hopefully, someday,One More Daywill finally be undone, andSpider-Manfans will get the stories for their hero that they deserve.
Spider-Man: One More Dayis available now from Marvel Comics!
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is the name given to several individuals who have employed a spider-moniker throughout Marvel Comics. Typically gaining their powers through a bite from a radioactive spider, the different Spider-Man heroes employ super-strength, agility, and intellect while utilizing webbing to swing and tangle up their foes. The most notable of these Spider-Men is Peter Parker, who remains one of the most popular superheroes throughout the world.
